Gentry's Gallery of Angels

by Stephy Smith

  “Don’t stick her in the hole just yet, son. Although, I must admit it’s a matter of time for mother. She’s old and tired. ” He nodded at the office. “Amanda’s not taking it too well. Victoria and I are going to ride out there with her. If anyone needs me, that’s where I’ll be. Oh, did mother order a small wooden box?”

  “Yes, and it came in. She said it was for Amanda. Would you like me to get it?”

  “Not just yet. When I send for you, then you should bring it along. I’m going to need you to help move some furniture for the war veterans’ celebration. Mother thought the box would help Amanda get through the rough stages in life.” Sam rested his hand on the crude wood coffin. He stepped away and disappeared into his office.

  Nick wandered back to the store. Amanda’s pain settled in his soul. Deep down he knew there was nothing he could do and that bothered him. He turned to stand in the doorway and wait for the three of them to exit.

  He had wanted to go to Amanda since she left the store earlier. Although she assured him she would be all right in due time he had a strong desire to protect her from her own feelings. His mind and heart counteracted each other, both with valid claims. He didn’t know which to follow.

  Frozen in his tracks, he peered at Sam and Victoria escorting the sobbing Amelia from the building. The thunder of his heart pounded against his chest as Sam helped her in the back of the wagon. Why did they put her in with the coffin? Her eyes fixed on the brown box as if she were in a trance. Bile rose in his throat. If only he could pull her from the torment and torture of being faced with the inevitable.

  He ran to her. “Amanda, I’ll close the store and give you a ride back.”

  “No, I want to be left with my thoughts.” Her eyes remained focused on the coffin.

  He thought of a few years back when he’d gone through the loss of a loved one. His mother couldn’t bear being without his father during the war. She left with the first gambler headed to the west coast, leaving him in Alabama with his uncle and aunt. His father came home from the war consumed with deep depression. He would visit when he had good days, but for the most part, he stayed in the mountains to himself.

  Nick’s heart ached for Amanda. She talked about her grandmother with great pride and respect. He tingled at the way her soft voice flittered in the air as natural and carefree as a bird’s wings. When she sang in church, she sent goose bumps racing across his skin. Here in her time of need, he didn’t know what to do for her.

  To abide by her uncle’s wishes, he stayed behind to wait for Sam to send for him. He hoped it would be soon and he could whisk her away from her state of discontentment. She had never lost anyone close to her before. However, the impact of just the thought weighed heavy on his beautiful bride-to-be. He turned back to the store willing him to do something to take his mind off Amanda. The mournful wind howled across the windowpane. Dust peppered the gray skies and the air chilled. He shivered at the thought of Amanda sitting in the back of the cold wagon staring at the coffin.

  Chapter Five

  The ride back to Sanders Cross was depressing and somber. The songs of the birds lining the trees meant nothing to her except jibber-jabber. Buzzing of insects echoed as noise in Amanda’s ears. Her body numbed to everything outside of it. She sat as if she were facing a firing squad, silent, unaware and tattered on the inside. The rush of cold air bit into her skin, and she tugged her coat tighter around her neck.

  There was no sense of sight, taste or smell. She was just there, suspended in a world of nothingness. Darkness loomed within her soul. How could she bear facing her grandmother? Sam rested his hand on her shoulder. The wagon had stopped and she hadn’t even noticed.

  “Amanda, listen to me. Are you listening?” he paused until she nodded. “You have to be strong for her. You have fulfilled her wishes today. They’ve had Grandfather’s coffin for years. They had aunt Mittie get it; she reacted much the same as you.”

  He coaxed her from the wagon where she sat, staring at the box. Victoria grabbed her hand and led her to the house.

  Inhaling a deep breath, she tiptoed to her grandmother’s door and tapped lightly. Somber silence greeted her with the slowness of breaths rising and falling from her grandmother’s fragile chest. She pulled up a chair and took Izella’s hand. Her grandfather, Lewis, sat in a chair on the other side and held her other hand.

  Grandfather’s eyes moistened with unshed tears. His forehead creased with deep lines, and his lips quivered as he spoke. “My sweet Izella. I’m going to tell you the same thing you told me when we purchased my coffin.” Her grandmother’s closed eyes never saw his halfhearted smile. The beat of Amanda’s own heart pounded in her ears.

  “Today may be the day you’ve been waiting for.” His face took on a distant look. “You will no longer feel the pains of the disease. Your mother and father will be waiting with our Maker to take you on a new and exciting journey where the light will be of gold and the air will always be fresh. The only sounds you will hear will be joyous voices praising the Almighty. You will bask in glory. Today I give you my blessing to go in peace… and rest comfortably among the beauty only known to those who are there. It has been a long and prosperous life for the both of us.” His voice choked. He lowered his head and took a deep breath.

  “Before you go, I want to tell you how much I am blessed to have had the opportunity to have been married to you all these years. You are my world and always will be. I look forward to the day when I can once again hold you in my arms, to breath in the fresh aroma of the flowers floating from your hair, to gaze upon your lovely face. You and only you hold my heart and my love. Take it with you for the power it holds is great. The rewards of our union still walk among me. I will not leave you alone again until you take your last breath.” The tears easily slid down his cheeks. He laid his head on her chest as his body quaked with the sobs flowing freely from his body.

  He stood and walked to the window seat. Pulling up the cushion, he grasped the small box and placed it under the quilt close to Izella’s heart. Amanda remembered watching Grandmother handle the tiny box.

  With a shaky hand, she had lifted the cushion and removed the box of letters she secreted there. She had wrapped her arms around the wooden rectangle and hugged her most prized possessions to her heart.

  “Oh Lewis,” she’d cried. “If I could only believe you fare well. One gaze upon your handsome face, one touch from your calloused hand to let me know everything will once again be right with our world would quench all doubt in my soul.” Then she had kissed the end of the box and returned it to the hiding space.

  “You must remember to go forth with the feast. The men who served and lost their lives in the war, their families deserve to know they have not been forgotten. You and Amanda can prepare everything the way I have shown you.” She laid her hand on Lewis’s arm and clutched the treasure to her chest with the other.

  “Amanda.” Her grandmother’s whisper drew her to lean closer. “Always remember when the bells ring, the angels sing.” Her gray eyes brightened, and she took a shallow breath. She closed her eyes and the bells from the church sounded. Amanda took it as a sign of the angels coming to take her grandmother away.

  “No! I’m not ready to let you go! Don’t go Grandmother, please come back. You must, Grandmother. Can’t you see Grandfather needs you? I need you.” Her heart lurched. Sam rushed in the door. Lewis smoothed back Izella’s hair, kissed her on the forehead and walked from the room.

  If only there was a table to hide under. All she needed was a secret place for her to escape the gut wrenching emptiness welling inside her. She had no place to run except home to her mother and father.

  “She’s drifting into unconsciousness, and we won’t know anything until she comes out of it or quits breathing. Right now we are riding on the wings of hope.” Sam held tight to Amanda’s shoulder. His knuckles under her chin lifted her face until she glanced at him. “She’s still with us, Amanda.”

  “I’ll send word to M
aggie and Robert.” Victoria squeezed her shoulder.

  Amanda shook her head. “No. I’ll go tell them.”

  “You’re in no shape…”

  Fury clinched Amanda and she narrowed her eyes at Victoria.

  “How dare you tell me what kind of shape I am in? Would you prefer to receive such intimate news as this by a stranger or a relative? I want to be there with my mother. Maybe if you hadn’t kept Grandmother’s illness a secret, we all would have taken time to adjust to the idea. However, you chose otherwise and now you try to tell me what kind of shape I’m in? I’m hurt, Victoria. Devastated!”

  “Amanda!” Sam reached for her. She ran from the room and didn’t stop until she stood at the stall door in the barn. Her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. The horse stood still as Amanda slipped the bridle and saddle on her. At breakneck speed, she rode toward her home.

  Running from her own anger, the wind biting into her face, she slowed the horse to a walk. There had been no call in spouting off to Victoria the way she had. It wasn’t her fault Grandmother chose to withhold her illness from the rest of the family. She breathed in the piercing air and wiped the frozen tears from her face. Squaring her shoulders, she braved the storm and prepared herself to the reaction of her parents.

  “Nick, I could use you right about now. I don’t know where to turn or where to go from here. I hope to see you soon.” Her voice floated in the air. The wish would disseminate into the passing storm. Her ability to reach him before dark frayed with the low setting sun. She would have to wait until tomorrow to be comforted by the security of his manly hugs.

  The most important day of her life churned in her mind. “I wonder if Nick would mind if we postponed the wedding for a week or two. I don’t see how I can manage to be happy with Grandmother tucked in the bed and not able to share the day with us.” One of the mares ears tilted back to listen to the ramblings of her rider.

  ****

  In the first grade, Nick met Amanda on the first day of school. They had been friends for a long time. He didn’t know when he fell in love with her, but he didn’t like anyone trying to push her around. There were many times he intervened as other girls and boys tried to push her into doing something she didn’t want to do. At times, she seemed so gullible he thought her innocent nature reigned with glory. It truly bothered her to decline anyone’s request, no matter what it was.

  As soon as there was word, he would be by her side, picking up the pieces of her shattered heart no matter what the cause. He walked to the back room and pulled out the wooden box Mrs. Sanders ordered for Amanda. Sam said it was to help Amanda get through difficult times. Just how difficult could things get?

  He ran his fingers over the carved ridges of the bell in the center of the lid and two angels, one in each of the upper corners tugging on ropes. “I don’t know what kind of significance this holds, but it sure is pretty, Mrs. Sanders, and fits Amanda perfectly. She’s an angel,” he whispered to the empty back room.

  Slipping out the front door, he twisted the key in the lock. Cody Lansing stood across the way talking with a group of young women. He narrowed his gaze at the broad back of the former deputy. The man turned the head of every single female within the bounds of his territory. He made it known he planned to court Amanda regardless if she were being courted by someone else. The overbearing deputy never turned down the chance to flirt with the women.

  Nick shook his head and clutched the wooden box to his side. A whirling dust cloud danced down the street. The storm blowing in cooled the air. He shivered and took the boardwalk home. Trying to shake the actions of Cody from his mind tormented him. Why should he care about what the Lansing was up to? A nagging voice in his mind beheld the truth. He couldn’t stomach the way Cody used his charms to draw in the hearts of the fair maidens and one of the innocent souls he preyed on was Amanda, despite the marriage announcement they’d had printed in the newspaper.

  She never returned any kind of interest in Cody. The more she resisted the harder he tried to woo her into his clutches. Cody was a likeable man among the men as well. He had never done anything to Nick to give him cause to dislike the man. Lansing was, in terms of the citizens of Courtview, the most popular available bachelor in town. Nick was only the lowly owner of the mercantile with no family to turn to. He was also the one who was going to marry the most beautiful woman in town, his Amanda.

  No one except Amanda knew he still owned his aunt and uncle’s plantation outside of town. Rumors spread like wildfire when he had moved to Courtview to run the store. When he had time off from the store, he traveled to the country to work the ground. After the wedding, the two of them would stay at the mansion. She wasn’t keen on being in the midst of things. She was accustomed to the wide-open lands where she could think without another opinion clogging up her mind.

  Nick smiled to himself. “You can only marry one of them, Cody, and it won’t be Amanda.” He gave a last backward glance at the group and entered the boarding house where he rented a room.

  Entering the small room, he glanced around at his meager belongings. He paced the floor and came to a stop at the fireplace. On the mantel, he had placed his father’s medals from the Civil War. He tried to recollect what happened during that time, but he was too young to remember much. The only thing he could grasp was the day his father arrived to find him living with his aunt and uncle.

  His father had been rattled by the war, and when he’d found his wife gone and Nick being raised by relatives, his father had taken to living a solitary life. Nick never blamed his dad for not being home with him. He didn’t know him well, but well enough to know it wasn’t his dad’s fault things turned out the way they did.

  The day word came of his mother’s death, Nick’s father had hugged him to his chest and explained how a gambler had shot and killed her. His words rang in his mind as if it were yesterday. “Son, if you want to keep a woman, love her with all your heart and never leave her side. Your ma was a good woman.” The life faded from his father’s eyes that day and never returned.

  Nick shook his head, and spoke to the medals. “No, Dad. Mrs. Sanders and Mrs. Gentry are good women. They waited for their men to come home and never doubted they wouldn’t. Mr. Sanders and his sons are lucky to have wives with strong convictions such as theirs.” From the time he could remember, he’d heard all the talk about how strong their beliefs were. In his mind, he knew the courage lie with Mrs. Sanders.

  The insistent pounding on his door matched by the panicked voice all but stilled his heart. “Mr. Harper, Doc wants you out at Sanders Cross immediately.” Hurried footsteps of the messenger faded before he could pull the door open. He slipped into his coat and grabbed up the box. Reaching the front door, he heard the horses prancing out front.

  The somber evening air, now still and quiet, would match the next few days for Amanda. He knew from the past how much her grandmother meant to her. Gloom and despair would reach into the depths of her soul to hold life hostage for a while until she could break free of the tumultuous pain settling in her heart. He would be there to help her put back the pieces and rebuild the damage inflicted upon a body.

  “Don’t stick her in the hole just yet,” he whispered to himself. “You have no confirmation Mrs. Sanders is gone.” He sucked in a long breath. Sam said he would need him to set up for the party. Without a second thought, he was out the door and on his way to help in any way he could.

  Chapter Six

  Amanda sat on the rock fence, her knees bent in an upside down V. The long green dress covered her legs and made a tent. She wrapped her arms around them as she leaned against the pillar of stair-stepped stones. Tears stained her cheeks. The bell rang in the watchtower of the castle where she lived with her parents and sisters.

  The chiming of the bells always brought back vivid memories of the day the men in her family returned from the war. She reflected on the significance of the gesture as she waited.

  The church bells failed to ring as
often as they did when the war ended. Now, another lucky family would welcome their loved ones into their arms to celebrate a joyous reunion of the best kind.

  Her mother and aunts, Grace and Mittie, joined Grandmother on the front porch. She was drying her hands on her apron. “Do pray it’s them, Mother.” Maggie draped her arm over Izella’s shoulders.

  Mittie ran down the lane and peered toward the ringing church bells. Maggie held her breath, afraid to look in the direction from whence the men would come marching home. But she was more afraid of not looking.

  They all stood frozen on the porch until Mittie stomped back towards them. Izella’s shoulders slumped with despair. She let out a long sigh, and then Maggie dropped her arms to her sides.

  Grace stomped her foot. “I don’t understand. Everyday more men return home. Where are ours? Why don’t they come home to us? I hate this and we need to face the fact… our men simply are not going to return to us.”

  Mittie came to a stop before Grace. Maggie cringed at the stare Mittie gave her sister. “Are you telling us you have given up hope? Mother and Maggie need us to stay strong in our faith in Father and the boys. You want to bury their bodies, and we don’t even have proof they are dead!”

  “Now girls, stop it!” Izella pasted a look of warning on her face. “I will not have this kind of banter on this Thanksgiving Day.”

  “Grace is right. Why should we torture ourselves every day when those church bells ring? The only thing they serve is disappointment when Robert, Father and the boys don’t return. I cannot take this anymore.” Maggie gazed at her sisters and mother through tear-filled eyes.

  Mittie took Maggie’s hands in her own. “You must snap out of this, Magdalene! Do not let Grace discourage you. We need to adhere to our belief that the men will one day return. Maybe they need a little time to adjust. They will find their way home someday. You just wait and see. I will not give up hope that they are alive.”